Camzin is from South Africa. When she moved to America, the Standard American Diet greeted her with open arms. Today I get to share with you her journey to overcome flawed conventional wisdom, the world of carbs, and the naysayers.

If you have your own Primal Blueprint success story and you’d like to share it with me and the community please contact me here. Have a wonderful Thursday, everyone, and thanks for reading!

Dear Mark,

My story begins when I stopped doing gymnastics as a teenager. I had practiced 20-40 hours a week for three years as a gymnast before my family and I moved to America. When we moved here there was no gymnastics facility around and we settled into an American diet of large portions and lots of carbs. I found gym workouts boring and tiresome, and consequently my activity levels also declined. I steadily gained weight over the next four years.

When I was getting ready to return to South Africa last December to visit my family, I started working out six days a week and counting calories to try and lose some weight. In the “before” pictures I had already lost around five pounds, a feat that took me three months to do. At my peak, I weighed 185 lbs. I couldn’t go for a leisurely walk without getting out of breath, which was scary since I used to be able to do six hours of gymnastics practice and have energy afterward. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t regain my original level of fitness but was able to eek my weight down to 170 lbs.

This was my increasingly depressing and frustrating story until August of this year. A friend of mine told me about Primal and I laughed at her, saying I could never do it (I used to choose restaurants based on the complimentary dinner bread they provided). But after seeing the changes that started in her I decided to “try” Primal at the end of August. When I told people about the journey I was about to embark on I received a lot of negative feedback. I was told that I was joining a cult, that this was B.S., and that I should consult a dietitian before I cut out things like processed foods. Fortunately, I ignored the naysayers and I lost about 10 lbs my first month and felt better than I had in years. I was hooked.

I then bought the cookbook and got cooking. My brother went Primal with me in September and my parents in late November. I included before and after pictures for my whole family for this reason, they are already starting to look better even after a few weeks.

Primal blew me away. When I started counting calories my goals was to get down to a size 4 (from an 8), 155 lbs (from 185), and to be a size medium. I remained a size 8, got to 175, and remained a large on this method. Since being Primal I am now a size 0 (which is loosening by the day), I weigh 135 (a full 20 lbs lower than I could have ever imagined), and I am a small or extra small in all of my clothing. My skin has cleared up and I have so much more energy now. So much so that I actually feel the urge to exercise and I find exercise fun.

I once again practice gymnastics and have the energy to hike, run, play, and frolic. This is the first winter where I have not gotten sick as well. I know that my journey has not been as drastic as some of the other success stories on here, but I am just so grateful and impressed with the amazing life I now enjoy. I cannot begin to thank Primal enough for the transformation it has caused in my life. Thank you so much. A special thanks to Anders (who submitted “Bringing Home the Bacon“) and Emma for recommending this to me. Grok on!

– Camzin M

If you'd like to add an avatar to all of your comments click here!

Load Comments